Iraq insecurity rife two years after invasion
AFP, Baghdad
Violence and insecurity hold sway over much of Iraq two years after the US-led invasion, despite burgeoning Iraqi security forces and the continued presence of 150,000 foreign troops, mostly Americans. The two main roads heading south from the capital are so dangerous that one of them is nicknamed the "highway of death", while the other passes through an area with the dubious moniker of the "triangle of death". The road north, which passes through the country's Sunni Arab heartland, is the scene of repeated kidnappings and murders. The cities of Ramadi, west of the capital, and Samarra and Mosul, to the north, see daily clashes between insurgents and government forces while bomb attacks in Shia districts have cost the lives of at least 700 people. Widespread looting followed by the disbanding of the army and intelligence services of the former regime as ordered by former US administrator Paul Bremer in May 2003, have contributed to the insecurity. The insurgency itself, made up of members of the former ruling Baath party and militant Islamists, initially targeted US forces, then Iraq's own nascent security personnel and Shias, considered collaborators of the "occupation". Meanwhile, porous borders have allowed hundreds of self-procla-imed holy warriors to pour into the country and have a go at soldiers of the world's only superpower.
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